In 1975 hybrid seeds were created from controlled pollinations between `Borchert Black Sour`.times.NY 6935 (`Richmorency`.times.`Schattenmorelle`). A population of seedlings with the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station breeding record designation 75323 were planted in 1976 in an orchard designated as Crittenden 30. One seedling in this population was planted in Row 1, Tree 136, and in 1981 it fruited for the first time and in 1982 it was selected for further testing because of its excellent yield on a young tree and its interesting intermediate red colored fruit (skin, pulp, and juice). It was designated NY 12716 and grafted in 1982 to `Mazzard Seedling` rootstocks utilizing the nursery t-budding grafting technique. These grafts produced trees to be used for more tests of this selection's merit. Grafted trees that resulted were planted in 1984 in a Station field designated as Crittenden 29Row2Tree44 (Cr29R2T44). In 1984 further grafted trees resulted from using Cr29R2T44 buds for propagating wood and planting trees grafted to `Mazzard Seedling` rootstocks in a Station orchard designated as Lucey 50 Row 1 Tree 10, T11, T12, T13, T14, T15. Subsequently fourth clonal generation trees were created utilizing buds for propagating wood taken from the L50R1T11. Such fourth generation trees were distributed to collaborators in the USA who assisted us in evaluating the merit of this selection under restricted nondistribution test agreements.
NY 12716 is being named and released as `Surefire` and is the subject of this invention.
In all test plantings, trees of NY 12716 (now being named and released as `Surefire`) bore consistently good fruit crops as judged by experienced researchers and cherry orchardists. Some of these trees were tested during blossom time for pollenizer effectiveness on their own stigmas to determine if the selection had the self fruitful characteristic, which it did.
There follows comparison of traits of this selection as compared to the `Montmorency` cultivar that is the primary commercial source cherry cultivar in the USA, comprising over 98% of all sour cherry orchards.